Marking 11 Years Of Service

This year Avalon Group, a group of real estate services companies, celebrated its 11th anniversary. This is a remarkable year for us in that we literally rose out of the ashes from the financial crises that have affected us from 2008.

I started our celebration by sending a message to all our associates:

I just couldn’t let this opportunity pass. Today is Sept. 1, 2010. It is our birthday. It has been 11 years since I started my one-person consulting office, Avalon Development & Consulting, with a shoestring budget to pursue a dream. Today, we are Avalon Group, with three active and thriving operating divisions - Avalon Commercial, Avalon Realty and Avalon Development & Consulting. Despite having faced the most daunting economic period in the last two years, we’ve survived. We’ve not only survived, we have grown into a group of full-fledged real estate services companies - a commercial property management firm with a diverse portfolio of properties on all the islands, a very focused and results-oriented leasing team, a boutique residential brokerage firm, and a highly qualified and experienced real estate advisory services team leveraging our experience and expertise as owner/developer of properties.

I just wanted to thank you for having reached out to help us, especially our loyal clients and our trusted lenders, who have continued to provide us the opportunity to show you what a small team of dedicated individuals can do. We don’t take your trust lightly, and we will continue to work hard for you. Thank you, thank you and thank you again. Given what we faced in the recent past, I know we can survive the future.

In 2008, the whole world fell apart for us. I had to lay off staff, and asked the remaining members to take pay cuts. But in the two years since, my team, thankful to have jobs, actively sought out opportunities to leverage our expertise in real estate. They secured property management, leasing assignments and put their heart and soul into customer service.

It all worked out. This year, Avalon has been able to rehire most of those we laid off, plus new employees. They are grateful to our clients, and have developed a better client service program. It is all about our clients and it will remain so.

I have realized the best of us come through during the hard times, and I found that my team at Avalon is really the heart and soul of our company.